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Abortion and Racism

“Strong Families Make Strong Nations”

Vice had an interesting article about White Supremacists and fascists now supporting anti-abortion positions. Members of the white supremacist group Patriot Front joined an anti-abortion march in Chicago. The Chicago Sun-Times reported that the cowboy hat-wearing Patriot Front founder Thomas Rousseau was also among the Patriot Front members present at the march.

Rousseau formed the racist group as a splinter faction of the neo-Nazi group Vanguard America after the violent Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Patriot Front took the explicitly neo-Nazi agenda of Vanguard America and repackaged it in Americana, with the goal of broadening their appeal and drawing in more recruits.

The Proud Boys, another neo-fascist group, has also recently aligned itself with abortion opponents: The group provided security to the anti-abortion “Stolen Voices Foundation.”

After leaving the March for Life, Patriot Front members unloaded their gear and took off in cars with taped-over license plates. In videos posted to social media, more than a dozen Patriot Front members can be seen marching alongside people demonstrating in support of Chicago’s March for Life. The Patriot Front members wore matching, country club-esque uniforms of blue jackets and pale khakis, as well as hats and face coverings to obscure their identities. Many carried American flags and red-and-blue shields. The group’s banner read “Strong Families Make Strong Nations.”

 

Supreme Court’s Rewrite of Roe v. Wade

The Supreme Court will rewrite the country’s abortion laws when it rules on a case from Mississippi which bans abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. During oral arguments, all six Republican-appointed justices hinted that they would uphold the Mississippi law

. Chief Justice John Roberts seemed to favor a decision that would make 15 weeks the new cutoff. Roe v. Wade allowed 23 weeks under current law. Roberts believes other countries substantially restricted abortion at 15 weeks of pregnancy. Is that significant?

The New York Times created a statistical portrait of abortion in the U.S. The Times’s portrait shows that only 4 percent of abortions happen after 15 weeks. The portrait also shows that nearly two-thirds of abortions happen in states that President Biden won last year. None of those states would pass new laws restricting abortion even if the Supreme Court allowed them. Together, those facts mean that a narrow ruling upholding the Mississippi law might cause less than 2 percent of current abortions to become illegal.